Cali Coast Wine Country | Santa Barbara Rock Crab Eggs Benedict at Jane

Fall’s Don’t-Miss-Dish in Edible Santa Barbara magazine

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With items like breakfast pizza fritta, shakshuka eggs, housemade levain breads and seafood galore, it’s difficult to pick a dish from the new weekend brunch menu at Jane at the Marketplace in Goleta. After 8 years in the downtown Santa Barbara location, Jane expanded to this outpost and added brunch to their French and Mediterranean inspired menu.

Fall’s seasonal benedict is made with local Santa Barbara rock crab over fresh spinach and sliced tomatoes on a housemade bun. And the rock crab is extremely fresh, sometimes only hours out of the ocean (and never frozen). At Jane, the kitchen staff for each shift calls in the seafood order for the next meal service, which means this crab is ordered from Santa Barbara Fish Market the night before. All seafood is delivered twice daily, chosen from the market’s daily fresh offerings.

Almost all the bread at Jane is sourdough – including the fried pizza dough in the pizza fritta (peach or banana breakfast pizza) – and made in-house from a starter that’s been alive as long as the restaurant. Chef Mark Huston started his bread for the Goleta location almost 2 years ago when they opened, so that local yeast would contribute to the bread’s taste and makeup. This signature bread is still evolving with the air, and adorning tables and dishes at brunch, lunch and dinner. And it goes so well with bright, sweet crab and delicate, French-style Hollandaise sauce.

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To make the dish, Huston gently boils the crab in salted water for 10-15 minutes, then cools and cracks the crab and removes the meat. He grills the buns in clarified butter (you can sautée in a skillet) and tops that with sliced tomatoes and fresh spinach. He makes Hollandaise sauce by blending egg yolks, lemon, vinegar and clarified butter, then adds a tiny spot of hot water at the end (this makes it lighter and more delicate). He adds a poached egg to each bun, tops with the fresh Hollandaise and garnishes with herbs or chives.